The Irish Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Harris published a new law which makes peat extraction involving an area of 30 hectares or more exempt.
Minister for Climate Action and environment Richard Bruton published a supporting statutory instrument. The combined effect of the two laws will, according to Fiends of The Irish Environment, create a new regulatory regime for commercial peat operators to exempt them from the requirement to obtain planning permission.
An Bord Pleanála previously ruled that industrial extraction requires planning permission.
However EPA licences will be required to extract peat in the future.
Peat is of course critical for the Irish Mushroom industry, as well as its use for horticulture and use as fuel.
